As the average human life span increases, and advances in medicine allow people to remain healthy and active well into their eighties and beyond, the number of senior citizen drivers has also increased. While most of these seniors drive safely and responsibly, there is no denying that their reflexes are slower than they used to be. In addition, many older drivers lose feeling in their feet, which makes it difficult to move between the gas pedal and the brake pedal, or to distinguish between the two. In some instances, older drivers have been known to miss the brake pedal entirely, or to have their foot slip off the pedal without their knowledge.
Various efforts have been made in the past to design non-slip brake covers. For instance, French patent 2158632 A5 to LeCointre discloses a non-slip block or wedge of semi-flexible material that is secured to the top of a brake pedal by a sliding fit or clamps. U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,592 B2 to Lee discloses a rubber pad that is clamped between the top of a brake or accelerator pedal and a plastic holding cap. The rubber pad includes a plurality of anti-slip protrusions that project through slots in the holding cap to present a roughened contact surface for the driver's foot. British patent GB 170,742 to Maggs discloses a brake pedal cover comprising a plate of sheet metal or other suitable material that is about twice the length of the width of the brake pedal. The plate is curved in cross section to fit over the brake pedal. One end of the plate is turned under to engage with the underside of the foot plate, while the opposite end is flanged upwardly to form a lateral rest preventing the foot from sliding off the plate. None of these prior art brake covers have been entirely satisfactory, however. The brake covers of LeCointre and Lee both provide non-slip surfaces, but do not appreciably increase the surface area of the brake pedal, and therefore are still easily missed by a handicapped or elderly person having limited mobility of the foot. The cover of Maggs increases the effective width, but not the effective length, of the brake pedal, and requires a rather cumbersome and impractical clamping plate to secure the cover to the pedal.
These and other problems are addressed by this disclosure as summarized below.